An educated guess at your starters on defence . . ,.

I got to thinking today about what exactly we’ll see out of the Stampeders defence on Thursday night against the B.C. Lions.Judging by the anticipation level of the players, it could be something special.I say “could” because the Calgary defence is still fairly fluid. We saw signs of some good things in the pre-season, particularly in the Edmonton game when the Esks were shut out offensively until late in the fourth quarter.In B.C., I thought Calgary’s first-teamers did a great job in the first quarter; B.C.’s offence mostly took advantage of rookies in the Calgary secondary as the game wore on.We won’t know until an hour before game-time just who’ll be starting on defence, but an educated guess (certainly not based on any observations this week!) would probably show Mike Labinjo and Funtaine Hunter at the the two end spots on the line, and a rotation of Eddie Freeman, Howard Hodges and Miguel Robede at the tackle spots.At linebacker, Saleem Rasheed in the middle, JoJuan Armour on the weak (shorter) side of the field and Shannon James on the strong (wider) side.And in the backfield, look for Brandon Browner and Dwight Anderson at the corner spots, and Brandon Smith and Calvin Bannister at halfback, and Richard Karikari starting at safety, although you’ll likely see lots of Wes Lysack as the night wears on.Interesting note about the Stamps roster: three guys named Brandon, all listed as defensive backs: Browner, Smith and Stewart.

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